Post by Maggie Lockheart on Jan 10, 2022 22:57:55 GMT -5
. : Prologue : .
The Revolution is in my hands.
12/28/21
When Magdalena Marie Lockheart walked back through the curtain that a Revolution1 crew had set up in the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, she wasn't walking at all.
With a referee under each arm, Lockheart hopped along on her left leg while she kept the right from making any contact with the ground whatsoever. The Legendary Championship title belt was draped over her shoulder in all its fantastic glory. This fight wasn't about a shiny gold plate affixed to a leather strap, but it still shines regardless.
Once more, like after the Remembrance Battle Royale, there were those that were clapping. A lot of the folks back there knew Tommy, or knew of him at least. They understood the significance of the moment, even if it wasn't perfect. Eddie came up with tears in his eyes and embraced Maggie as though she had brought his best friend back from the dead. But the only thing she was able to accomplish was to avenge his memory.
"Ya did it... ya fuckin' did it!" Eddie exclaimed, "I tolds you... I tolds you!"
She couldn't hold back either. Tears flowed like the blood that was spilled moments prior. It was brutal. It was an instant classic. It would come to be voted as "match of the year", and everyone who played a part in creating this honored moment deserves their heaping share of the praise. Even Min-Jun, who he himself made sure of it that his opponent wasn't going to be walking out of any arena with anything that belonged to him anytime soon.
But with that being said, there were those who still shot Miss Lockheart an angry glance or two. Death Row meant a lot to a lot of people, too. It was Revolution1's promised new beginning, and they had a pretty rough night overall. Little did they know that Revolution1 was going to completely hit the reset button in 2022. What would become of their future as a group was soon to take a little bit of a backseat to the question of what would become of the entire federation moving forward.
The Revolution would soon be at hand, with or without them.
With Eddie replacing one of the referees, he aided in helping Maggie back deeper in the backstage/locker room area (in the direction of the trainer's room) when she requested to stop for a moment.
"I'm fine... I just..." she squinted through the sweat and the sacrifice, "...need to catch my breath... that was... wooo... intense."
In truth, there wasn't a part of her body she could feel that didn't hurt. It was pulsing like the lights at the Velvet Rabbit strip club. Pieces of confetti stuck to her like pride after an accomplishment. Her ears were still ringing from the blasting pyros at the end.
"Sure sure, take yo time," Eddie said as he took her over to one of the equipment crates and helped her to sit down carefully. He then turned to the referee, the same one who counted the fall. "Ey yo, get tha med team over here. I want dem to check Maggie out at da ER-"
"No-" Maggie shook her head vehemently, "I want to do this... I wanna... walk out of here."
Maggie went to push herself up but Eddie was quick to stop her.
"No no, you gonna at least need x-rays for your ankle," Eddie replied, blocking her path.
But Maggie pushed herself up anyway. And with her right foot, toes down as if she was walking with an invisible stiletto heel on her wrestling boot, tried to take a hopping lunge-step and nearly collapsed from the pain right then and there.
...and anyone who knows ankle injuries knows the toes-down method of walking isn't a good sign.
Fortunately for Maggie, Eddie was there to catch her.
"Nah seriously, let dem bring a stretcher ova here for you."
"No," she repeated through gritted teeth, "I want to walk out of here."
"Fine," Eddie shot back strongly. He tucked his head back under Maggie's right arm. He was so much taller than her that he had to lean down as to not pick her up entirely. "You wants to walk out? We walkin' out togetha."
Maggie glanced over at him, her painted lips agape.
She didn't expect this. Not at all, no.
In her relatively short but storied career, she had seen many things. But never in the business did she actually have a friend who offered to help her do what she wanted.
They took one step. Two steps. Three. Maggie tried putting as much weight on her right ankle as she could, but she was soon back to swinging it along.
"So where are we... going anyway?" She gasped as it was taking whatever little she had left out of her to keep walking.
"I'm takin ya right to tha exit... where the ambulance is parked."
"Sounds... good to me..."
She said with a smile as Eddie was practically dragging her along by that point.
"Don't you worry, Champ. Ol' Eddie's gonna take care of ya."
MML.2022.001
"R/evolution"
Not all fairytales get a storybook ending.
Two weeks removed from Christmas Chaos, and it was 'out with the old and in with the new' in more ways than one.
Maggie sat in a home in rural Western Maryland with her right leg propped up on a footstool. Her ankle was wrapped with a soft cast.
A pair of crutches stood propped against the side of the recliner that was faced directly at the television screen. With her fingertips, she thumbed through the Revo1 network for all footage, any footage she could find on one Sara Pettis.
The Revolution1 World Heavyweight Champion Sara Pettis.
Granted, Maggie had faced Sara before. Since her return, several times in fact. But this time it was different. The stakes had never been higher. Not only did Revolution1 announce that this champion vs champion match would be a unification match for the world titles, but it would signal the official end of the Legacy brand.
Oh, and all of the stuff Maggie said to Jin about 291 days as the LevelUp Final Boss champion? Well, she lost that, too. And now, if Sara gets her way, Maggie would have nothing at all to show for 2021 but the memory of what could have been.
Maggie was far too competitive to let it come to this.
Yet her body was telling a different story. It was clearly one that needed all the rest it could get. Two weeks weren't going to do her injuries justice. But the card was set in stone and progress waits for no one. Revolution1 was ready to move on in a bold new direction, to combine the rosters and to up the ante with what being a champion means in their business. They didn't seem to care who was going to wave the banner marching forward. Sara. Maggie. Maggie. Sara.
All anyone knew was that one of them was going to.
"Did you take your medicine?"
Maggie paused Remembrance II as Gary Morrison, better known as Morrie, walked into the room carrying a glass of ice water.
It was his house, for all intents and purposes, and to make a long story short, Gary was a good friend of one of Maggie's mentors back in the day. He was also, at one point in his life, an excellent combat field nurse.
Maggie reached over to an end table absolutely littered with prescription pill bottles, each bearing her name on the label. She lifted a plastic container that had compartments for every day of the week. She pointed out that Monday's container was empty.
"Well, here, you should probably drink this anyway."
Maggie pursed her lips into a semi-forced smile and nodded her head. Morrie was like the over-protecting parent she never had.
She took a few sips before setting it down on the table next to the pile of prescribed medication. "Thanks."
"Anytime," he said before turning back to the exit. "Oh, before I forget, there was a rather odd-sounding guy who I believe said his name was... 'Eddie'. Do you know him?"
Maggie nodded her head.
"Thought so. He said he worked for Revo... sounded concerned if you were going to make it to the SuperShow or not."
"He might be the only one."
Maggie had been down. She had taken losing the Final Boss championship pretty hard. Sitting at home beat up and licking her wounds, she understood exactly how Jin must've felt.
The future wasn't looking too bright either.
"That's not true," Morrie replied sweetly as to not come off as being wholly dismissive. "But if you can't go, you can't go."
Maggie placed her leg down and pushed herself up from the recliner. It wasn't as labored as before, but she still limped pretty heavily as she walked over to where Morrie was standing.
"Look, I don't care if I have to go out there on one leg to fight Pettis. She deserves better than that. Revo1 deserves better than that."
"Are you sure this is about the injury?" Morrie asked, "Or is this about what you perceive people are taking from you?"
Maggie winced as she did her best to stand there on her own two feet.
She didn't quite know the answer, so she blurted out the only thing that seemed to make sense at the time:
"This is about respect."
We live in a world where when it's Sara Pettis versus the world, Sara Pettis wins.
Hi, my name is Magdalena Marie Lockheart and I-
"CUT!" A voice shouts from off-screen. "RESET!"
It's Tuesday the day of the SuperShow and perhaps the last Revo1 Legendary Champion Maggie Lockheart is standing in front of a Revo backdrop. She's got her belt draped over her shoulder again, and she came pre-dressed in her fight clothes tonight. It was going to be an all our war.
"Why? What did I do wrong?"
"You were too bouncy! Why are you bouncing?" The promo director said paying no attention to the clear and obvious walking boot on Maggie's right foot. "Can we get you a stool? Yes, let's get her a stool, please!"
One of Maggie's co-workers from the ring crew team came over and brought her a stool with a nod and a smile. She thanked them kindly and sat down.
"Alright, are we ready? ...aaannndddd ACTION!"
Hi, my name is Magdalena Marie Lockheart, and, for now anyway, I am the Revolution1 Legendary Champion. But oh, how quickly things change. It's a new year for Revo and the powers that be are going to make sure that we all feel that way. The landscape is changing right beneath our feet and there's nothing, not even Sara and I can do about it except fight it out and see which one of us gets to toe the line in 2022.
It's a cold reality but it's one we all have to face eventually. It's just like being born again in a sense, you know that the moment that you win a title that you're also setting up the day that you're going to lose it again. Like life, we don't always get to choose when that day comes, and in my opinion, like life, it can suck when that day comes a lot sooner than anyone expected.
I'm here today to defend the Legendary Championship against the new Revo1 World Heavyweight Champion and only one of us is going to be a champion moving forward.
A little over two weeks. That's too short. I don't want that for Sara just like I don't want that for me. But that's the cold reality that she and I are facing maybe even more so than we are facing each other.
It's not fair, especially for a competitor that I respect. But as Jin and Bert McAlroy would like to remind me time and time again.
Life's not fair. Get over it.
Get used to it.
So here I am. Maybe I'm not at my best but I'm in the best place, in the best shape that I could possibly be in. Some people call that burning the candle at both ends, but, I'm not one for excuses. I'm sure Sara has her bumps and bruises too. So let's call what we're at one-hundred percent and go from there because from studying the film, I don't think Sara knows how to give any less.
Luckily for the fans, neither do I.
In the past, Sara and I have fought and up to this point, I've pretty much had her number. Every achievement she seemed to muster always seemed to be shadowed by something that I did. She eliminated 5 people after entering 6th in the Remembrance Battle Royale that I won. At the Legacy Supershow in DC in the Triple Threat with Sara and Cerise... Sara had the match won, but again, I stole the show.
Trust me, I'm not bringing this up for any other reason than to say that Sara has more motivation than ever to finally get one over on me. And if she does, congratulations. The Child of Fate would prove to have a better destiny than I've had lately. But at the very least, Sara would make an excellent champion as the company moves forward.
The only problem I have is that... so would I.
Sara, I know that you've worked your ass off to come back and to rise up the rankings to get to where you're at now. You mention it all the time. "Comebacks are greater than setbacks", or something like that, and hell, I agree with you. Sara Pettis vs. The World... Sara Pettis vs. Damien Carter. These are moments that aren't just praiseworthy, they should be hall of fame worthy, too.
But your fight back to prominence lacks... something. I can't quite put my finger on it, but, I'll try anyway. See, at the end of the day, I think you fought your way through your own destiny just to prove something. You wanted to feel validated in your belief that you are a top girl wherever you decide to step foot in the ring.
Yet between you, I, and the Revo1 fans, we already knew that. Plus, now that you've beaten Damien Carter, where else is there to go? Are you truly convinced that I'm the next step up on your ladder of self-proof? Or, now that you've had your moment... do you find yourself with nothing left to prove?
See, Sara, I'm willing to admit that even I don't get to one-up Sara Pettis time and time again without some sort of cosmic luck involved.
But am I ready to be Destiny's... umm... child?
No.
I hate fate. I abhor destiny. So if it truly does exist, I guess the joke's really on me, huh? Cause if destiny is true, then fuck it, we don't have to have this fight after all. Let's ask Miss Cleo's crystal ball who is Revo's only ONE and TRUE champion in 2022.
Let me call up LevelUp right now and cancel my contract. Let me give up on going through the motions in this otherwise stupid, pointless dance... this endlessly, needlessly painful charade.
You might be the child of fate but I am a WOMAN OF PURPOSE.
So if I gotta drag my nub out there and break what's left of my foot off in your tight ass to prove a point...
You damn sure know that I will.
See, it might be cold, but when that bell rings I'm going to immediately forget what everyone else knows this is about. Titles or no titles, you and I are going to be in a fight... another fight... and I don't get into fights expecting to lose.
The pain I'll push to the background, like I do every time. The fans, I don't care if they're cheering me or booing or not. Whatever. It's all white noise at that point. Once more it's just you and me, almost as if it were meant to be. But no, I'm not ready to throw in the towel on all of our hard work and sacrifices that got us to this point. Maybe you think that it's karma but I like to think it's what WE made it.
All I'm gonna hear in that ring is the pounding of flesh and all I'm going to see are whatever opportunities that you present me. Wrestle the perfect match and you might walk out as the only World Champion we have to offer. Make a mistake, however, and your odds just might, as one famous mathematician put it: "drastic go down".
You're not in the ring with Khaos anymore. I'm not the tired, old champion. But I am the fish bleeding in the water. You might think the shark has an easy meal ahead of her, but here's the real story: I'm a shark, too.
I'm fighting for my life, my dignity, my pride, and whatever respect is still out there worth fighting for.
But I'll spit BLOOD and my own TEETH from my mouth before I GIVE UP or GIVE IN.
If it's my destiny to die, I'll still fight like it isn't.
Between you and I, I don't really want to take your title. Too soon. But given the choice between sending you on the path to another "fated" comeback or having to work my way back up the ladder again, I'd much rather stay right where I'm at.
Thank you.
But see, maybe that's what it is.
Maybe, that's what makes us different, "child of fate".
I'll fight Jin. I'll fight Khaos. I'll fight Jessie. I'll fight you... to my dying breath if I have to.
If fate wills it so, you'll just roll over and
...
...
lose.
